EVALUATIVE ADVERBS IN MANDARIN WH-QUESTIONS
Xin-xian Rex Yu
National Tsing Hua University

1.

Introduction

Evaluative adverbs (EAs), such as haozai 'luckily', xingkui 'fortunately' and jingran'unexpectedly' in Mandarin Chinese (henceforth Mandarin) are defined to express speaker's
judgments on the proposition or the fact (Palmer 1986; Hoye 1997; Cinque 1999; Tang 2000).
EAs in Mandarin could be listed as following, regarding to the morphological suffix –de: 1(1)(a) with identical suffix
xingyunde(b) without identical suffix‘luckily’buxingde‘unfortunately’churenyilaode‘unexpectedly’
lingrenyiwaide‘unexpectedly’momingqimiaode ‘inexplicable’……

xingkui
xinghao‘fortunately’‘fortunately’

fanzheng‘at least’

haozai‘luckily’

juran‘unexpectedly’

jingran‘unexpectedly’kexi‘it’s pity that…’

haihao‘not-bad’

pianpian‘contrarily’Starting from the distributions of EAs, I am going to clarify why EAs are so differentialfrom other kinds of adverbs, such as daodi ‘the hell’:(2)a.

Weisheme
why

ZhangsanZhangsancanjia-leattend-LE

huiyi ?
meeting‘Why did Zhangsan attend the meeting?’

1

In Mandarin, the adverbial suffix – 地 can be pronounced either as -de or -di, when it attaches toadverbs. Regardless of the dialectal disputes, I consistently mark with –de in this paper.
Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1, 187-208© 2007 Xin-xian Rex Yu

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1b.

Daodi weisheme Zhangsan canjia-lethe hell why
Zhangsan attend-LE

huiyi ?
meeting'Why the hell did Zhangsan attend the meeting?'c. * Haozai
luckily
(3)

a.

Lisi
Lisi

weisheme
why

Zhangsan canjia-lehuiyi ?
Zhangsan attend-LE meeting

ai-shang-le shei?
loved
who

'Who did Lisi fall in love with?'
b.

Daodi
the hellLisi ai-shang-le shei?
Lisi loved
who‘Who the hell did Lisi fall in love with?’c.

Kanlaiseemingly

Lisi ai-shang-le shei.
Lisi loved
who‘Lisi seems to have fallen in love with somebody.’
d. *Xingkui
Lisi
ai-shang-le shei ?/.
fortunately Lisi
loved
who?

(Xu 1990:358)

When daodi ‘the hell’ occurs at the beginning in (2b) and (3b), the sentence are grammatical,
expressing questions with strong emphasis on the answers. Following Kuo (1997), daodi
should be interpreted as “the hell”, preceding wh-phrases in wh-questions, and as ‘after all’ in
non-wh-questions. As to kanlai ‘seemingly’ in (3c), Xu (1990) considers it as a modal, andthe whole sentence should be interpreted with indefinite reading. However, these situations
would be totally different when EAs occur. Once haozai 'luckily' and xingkui 'fortunately'
occur in the sentences, both (2c) and (3d) become ungrammatical.
However, these effects do not take place when wh-questions are initialized with anothertype of EAs in (1):(4)

Lingrenyiwaide, weisheme
Zhangsan went Japan

Zhangsanqu-le Riben ?

unexpectedly

why'Why did Zhangsan unexpectedly went to Japan?'(5)

Xingyude,luckilyta ai-shang-le shei?
he loved
who‘Who did he luckily fall in love with?’
Focusing on the interaction between EAs and wh-phrases in questions found in Mandarin,
I propose two main issues composed of four questions dealing with these phenomena:- 188 -

Evaluative Adverbs in Mandarin Wh-questions (X.-X. R. Yu)(6)

The properties of EAs and their relations with other elements in Mandarin
What kinds of influences would they make on wh-phrases?
Why can they determine the grammaticality of the whole sentence?

(7)

Sub-classification of EAs in Mandarin
Are they all derived from corresponding adjectives? Does any difference occur amongthem?
How do the differences affect their interactions with wh-phrases?

At the beginning, we need to consider the specific semantic property of EAs, which
results in the contrasts in (2) and (3) above. The syntactic distributions of EAs would then be
discussed, based on Cinque's (1999) universal hierarchy of adverbs, as well as on Rizzi's(2004) split CP structure. Relativized Minimality, adjusted by Rizzi (2004) can properly
predicate the behaviors of adverbs in Mandarin. With slightly different from Rizzi's
predictions, some EAs in Mandarin contain different features, which results in theungrammaticality displayed in (2c) and (3c).
2.

Characteristic properties of EAs

2.1

Semantic properties of EAs

In general, adverb is just a syntactic category, while adverbials refer to expressions thatmodify verbs or “sentential” objects (Ernst 2002). Following Jackendoff (1972) and Ernst(2002), EAs should be regarded as speaker-oriented adverbs, belonging to the same groupwith speech-act adverbs ‘frankly’ and epistemic adverbs ‘obviously’:2(8)
predicational—composed of an adverb and its argument.
speaker-oriented: frankly, maybe, luckily, obviously
subject-oriented: deliberately, stupidly
exocomparative: similarly
event-internal: tightly, partially(Ernst 2002:9)
According to (8) above, EAs are classified as predicational adverbials, since EAs are
sensitive to the following propositions, and presuppose the truth of that propositions or
events:(9)a.

Tingshuo Lisi canjia-lehuiyi.
allegedly Lisi participated meeting‘Allegedly, Lisi participated the meeting.’

2(epistemic adverb)

In Bellert’s (1977) classification, EAs, domain adverbs, pragmatic adverbs, modal adverbs andperhaps are grouped as predicational adverbs.

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Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1b.

XingkuiLisicanjia-lehuiyi.
(evaluative adverb)
fortunately
Lisi
participated meeting‘It is fortunate that, Lisi has participated the meeting.’c.

Wo houhuicanjia-lehuiyi.
I
regretparticipated meeting‘I regretted participating the meeting.’(factive verb)

As the addressees of (9a), we are not exactly sure whether Lisi did or did not participate in themeeting. But the event in (9b) that Lisi has taken part in a meeting could definitely beinterpreted as nothing but true. The truth of the event is presupposed by the existence of EAs.
Moreover, this phenomenon is similar to those sentences created by factive predicates.
Factive predicates, such as houhui ‘regret’ in (9c), also presuppose the realization of the event
as well as the truth of that event. No one would feel regretful if nothing has happened.
Identically, no speaker could judge any event if it has not occurred yet.
2.2.

Syntactic distribution

Generally, sentential adverbs have relatively free distributions, with regard to the
distributions of Subject and Auxiliary (Ernst 2002:114): 3(10) a.

b.

Pianpian xiaozhang ye
contrarily principal also
Xiaozhang pianpian
principal
contrarily

xiang
want

qu.
go

ye xiang qu.
also want go'It is contrary that the principle also wanted to go.'(Zhang 2000b: 63)

These alternative distributions on sentential adverbs have gotten much attention andelaborate assumptions from various perspectives. For instance, xingkui 'fortunately' in
Mandarin has been analyzed either as a raising verb (Tsao 1996), or as a sentential adverb(Zhang 2000ab, Cinque 1999, and among others). Conveying speaker's judgment of
fortunateness on the fact, Tsao (1996) treats xingkui 'fortunately' in Mandarin as a kind ofmodal verbs, which can clearly separate the sentence topics (elements with double-underlinein (11)) and clausal topics (elements with single-underline in (11)). With relatively freeordering among these topics, various alternations are allowed:

3

Pianpian 偏偏 in Mandarin implies a situation in which the speaker slightly blames the Agent for
his/ her stubborn persistence in his/ her opinions, which are contrary to that of speaker. In this thesis, I
translate it as ‘contrarily’, though these two words are not perfectly correspondent.

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Evaluative Adverbs in Mandarin Wh-questions (X.-X. R. Yu)(11) a.
b.
c.

Ta A-hua qunian
xingkuimeiyou qu.
he A-hua last year fortunately not-have marry
Ta A-hua xingkui qunian meiyou qu.
Qunian ta A-hua xingkui meiyou qu.
'It is fortunate that he did not marry A-hua last year.'(Tsao 1996:178)

However, Tsao's assumptions would encounter some challenges on the distinction
between verbs and adverbs. First of all, verbs can be negated by bu 'not' or meiyou 'not-have',or construct an A-not-A form in yes/no questions. For example, bu-qu 'not go', qu-bu-qu 'go
or not' and bu-keneng 'can not', ke-bu-keneng 'can or can not'. But it is not the case for xingkui
and haozai.4 Moreover, unlike normal verbs in Mandarin, xingkui does not have any verbal
inflections, such as tense or aspectual markers. This criterion may not be precise for raisingverbs in English, but it reliable for raising verbs in Mandarin.
Due to these doubts on the verb perspective, I alternatively treat EAs as adverbs throughthis paper, and adopted Cinque’s universal hierarchy among adverbs.
2.3.

Frameworks

2.3.1

Cinque’s universal hierarchy

In Cinque (1999), adverbs are base-generated in the specifier of related functional heads.
And the projection of each functional head is ranked with relatively strict hierarchicalordering. Crosslinguistically, EAs in Cinque's hierarchy occupy the specifier of the head
named evaluative mood, surrounded by speech-act mood and evidential mood:(12) [Moodspeech act [Moodevaluative [Moodevidential [Modepistemic[T(Past)[T (future)… ]]]]]](Cinque 1999:106)
This universal hierarchy exhibits a strict ordering among adverbs without exchanges, basedon the observations on the distributions of adverbs. And this rigorous ordering in adverbs canbe attributed to the same inherited feature shared by adverbs. In Rizzi (2004), this sharedfeature is presumed as modifier feature, which is the key concept to build minimal
configurations, according to Relativized Minimality.
2.3.2

Relativized Minimality

Relativized Minimality (RM), in Rizzi’s (1990, 1997, 2001, 2004) definition, is a kind of
locality principles, and emerges its significance in accounting for the issues of syntactic
movements, which challenged previous principles, such as Subjacency Condition and Empty
Category Principle (ECP) without satisfied results.

4

Some EAs, such as xingyunde 'luckily' and yiwaide 'unexpectedly', can be negated by bu 'not', but it
is another story that we will discuss in section 4.

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Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1

First of all, RM contributes in defining syntactic constructions for the properties ofcreativity and recursion of languages.
"A fundamental discovery of modern formal linguistics is that if the length and depth ofsyntactic representations is unbounded, core structural relations are local."(Rizzi 2004:1)
RM provides a smallest environment, in which relations between elements must be locallysatisfied. In other words, RM sets up the boundaries for a core syntactic structure, and forbids
elements connecting or building relations across these minimal configurations. Thesedelimitations, however, are variable depending on the properties of the components. For
labeling these boundaries of different relations, Rizzi defines a minimal configuration as
follows:(13) a.

X....Z....Y
Y is in a Minimal Configuration (Mandarin) with X
iff there is no Z such as that
Z is of the same structural type as X, andZ intervenes between X and Y(Rizzi 2001:(4), 2004:(4))

As to the connection between the displaced element and its trace, the concept of chain is
mentioned. In Rizzi’s assumption, chain relation, including Head chain, A chain and A’ chain,must be represented through RM at LF.
2.3.3

Adverbs under RM

As locality constraints, these chain distinctions also account for the argument/ adjunctasymmetries (Rizzi revised of 1991NELS), as well as the hierarchical ordering among
adverbs in Dutch (Koster 1978) and Italian (Rizzi 2004). For preposed adverbs in Italian,Rizzi observed that they behave like topics, but in distribution, they may not naturally precede
the wh-phrases, while topics can (Rizzi 2004:15-16). From this phenomenon, the preposed
adverbs are proved to occur lower than topics. Meanwhile, due to different interactions withwh-phrases, topics are claimed to determine the island effect on A’ movement, while
preposed adverbs do not.
For precisely indicating the position of these preposed adverbs, Rizzi created a phrasal
slot between Force and Fin in the structure of CP system, named Mod(ifier):(14) Force Top*Int Top*

Focus Mod*

Top*

Fin

IP
(Rizzi 2004:18)

Following Rizzi’s assumptions, adverbs that move to Mod occupy the Spec position and- 192 -

Evaluative Adverbs in Mandarin Wh-questions (X.-X. R. Yu)“licensed by the substantive featural content of their heads” (Rizzi 2004:19). According tothese substantive features, Rizzi predicts the typology of specifiers:(15) a.
b.
c.
d.

Argumental: person, number, gender, case
Quantificaitonal : Wh, Neg, measure, focus...
Modifier: evaluative, epistemic, Neg, frequentative, celerative, measure, manner...
Topic(Rizzi 2004:19)

In (15), only the specifiers that belong to the same classification in (15) are stated to interact
with each other in sentences. Take adverbs in Dutch as examples, waarschijnlijk ‘probably’ is
not allowed to move across helaas ‘unfortunately’, as long as they co-occur:(16) a.

Het is zo dat hij helaas waarschijnlijk ziek is‘It is so that he unfortunately probably sick is’b. *Het is zo dat hij waarschijnlijk helaas ziek is‘It is so that he probably unfortunately sick is’(17) a.

Helaas is hij ___ waarschijnlijk zick‘Unfortunately is he probably sick’b. * Waarschijnlijk is hij helaas ___ zick
‘Probably is he unfortunately sick’c.

Waarschijnlijk is hij ___ zick
‘Probably is he sick’(Koster 1978 in Rizzi 2004:10-11)

This blocking situation can also be predicted in English and in Mandarin:(18) a.

Fortunately, he had evidently had his own opinion of the matter.

b.

Evidently he had fortunately had his own opinion of the matter.
(Cinque 1999:33)(19) a.

Henbuxingde, tamen keneng dui ni
youpianjian.
unfortunately they probably to you have prejudice'It is unfortunate that they might have prejudice in you.'b. * Keneng, henbuxingde
tamen dui ni
you pianjian.
probably unfortunately they
to you have prejudice(inspired from Cinque 1999)
EAs in Mandarin, however, represent more complicated situations when they co-occur
with wh-phrases:- 193 -

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1(20) a.

Weisheme haozai
whyluckily

ZhangsanZhangsancanjia-le huiyi ?
attend-LE meeting'Why is it lucky that Zhangsan attend the meeting?'b.

(21) a.

b.

*Haozailuckily

weisheme
why

Zhangsan canjia-le
Zhangsan attend-LE

huiyi ?
meeting

Kanlaita ai-shang-leshei.
seemingly he full-in-love-LE who‘He seems to have fallen in love with somebody.’*Pianpianta ai-shang-le shei ?/.
fortunately ta loved
who

If EAs in Mandarin only affect the adverbs in the same subclass, that is, they only have
Modifier feature, how could we explain the interaction between EAs and wh-phrases in (20)and (21)? It seems that EAs and wh-phrases also share the same feature, which results in thecrash of (20b) and (21b). RM, however, could not exactly account for these situations. Theseobservations lead us to the first issue:(6)

The properties of EAs and their relations with other elements in Mandarini.
What kinds of influences would they make on other elements in sentences?
ii. Why can they determine the grammaticality of the whole sentence?

3.

Interaction between EAs and wh-phrases

Beyond Rizzi’s predictions, the blocking effects caused by EAs in Mandarin are more
complicated: not only leaving effects on other adverbs for ordering, but they also interact withwh-phrases, including wh-adverbs and wh-nominals.5 Observing these interactions, I further
assume that an EA should be considered as an intervener in wh-questions.
3.1

Interveners and intervention effect

In Beck’s (1996) hypothesis, certain quantifiers interrupting in a sentence would
construct a structure as barriers for intervening LF movements. This structure can beillustrated as following:(22)*[...Xi...[Q...[...tiLF...]]](Beck 1996:1)

The Q in (22) represents the position of those specific quantifiers in Beck’s definition, andinterrupts into the path between X and its trace at LF. With further observations, Pesetsky(2000) further notices a phenomenon that the intervention effect occurs, as long as wh-feature
movement is restricted under the structure of (22). He then claims that once intervention
5

Only Adv-EAs, the adverbs without uniform suffix –de, are discovered to interact with wh-phrase,while Adj-EAs are not. The differences would be discussed in section 4.

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Evaluative Adverbs in Mandarin Wh-questions (X.-X. R. Yu)

effect takes place, LF feature movement could be detected.
Following Pesetsky's prediction on intervention effect, Soh (2005) presumes that theexistence of intervention effect on adverbial wh-phrases exactly implies the involvement ofcovert feature movement. Nominal wh-phrases, on the other hand, take a covert phrasal
movement, which would not be affected by blocking of interveners. Furthermore, Soh claims
that the interveners in Mandarin, such as zhi ‘only’, bu ‘not’, meiyouren ‘nobody’, henshao
ren ‘few people’, zuiduo liang-ge ren ‘at most two persons’, chang ‘often’ and ye ‘also’,
block the covert feature movement of weisheme ‘why’ at LF:(23) a.

Ni
you

weisheme shuo
whysaymeiyouren cizhi?
nobodyresign'What is the reason x such that for x you said nobody resigned?'b.

*Meiyouren

weisheme

shuoni

cizhi?

Dealing with the relations between quantifiers and in-situ wh-phrases in interrogatives, aswell as yes/no questions in Mandarin, Soh discovers that quantifiers are forbidden to precede
the in-situ wh-phrase. According to Beck’s assumption and Pesetsky’s prediction, theseintervention effects could be schematized as following:(24) *[Op…intervener…wh-adverb]
3.1.1

EAs and weisheme ‘why’

In Mandarin, weisheme ‘why’, as a wh-adverb that can not move out from island
constructions, are discovered to make an interrogative sentence in two positions— precedingor following the subject:(25) a.

b.

Weisheme Xiaozhang
why
Xiaozhang
Xiaozhang
Xiaozhang

hui canjia
will attend

weisheme hui canjia
whywill attend

huiyi?
meeting
huiyi?
meeting'What did Xiaozhang attend the meeting for?'In Tsai (2000), weisheme 'why' in Mandarin, occurring between auxiliary and verb, should beinterpreted with interrogative questioning on purpose. Alternatively, when weisheme precedes
Auxiliary, the interpretation of asking reason would appear. And these two different
distributions represent different results, when EAs occur:- 195 -

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1(26) a.

Xiaozhang
Xiaozhangweisheme nengwhycancanjia wuhui ?
join
party

'Why can Xiaozhang join the party?'b.

*Xinghao Xiaozhang weisheme nengfortunately Xiaozhang why
cancanjia wuhui ?
join
party

c.

* Xiaozhang xinghao
weisheme neng
Xiaozhang fortunately why
cancanjia wuhui ?
join
party

(27) a.

Weisheme Xiaozhang neng canjia wuhui ?
why
Xiaozhang can join
party
'Why can Xiaozhang join the party?'b. ? Weisheme Xiaozhang
why
Xiaozhang

xinghaoneng
fortunately cancanjia wuhui ?
join
party

'Why it is fortunate that Xiaozhang can join the party?'c. ? Weisheme xinghao
whyfortunately

Xiaozhang
Xiaozhangneng canjia wuhui ?
can joinparty'Why it is fortunate that Xiaozhang can join the party?'
For all the LF movement examples in (26), sentences fail to compose interrogatives, becauseof the interruption of xinghao ’fortunately’. As to those examples of covert movement in (27),wh-adverbs successfully attach to the Spec of CP, regardless of any interruption. Identicalsituations on weisheme are also discovered by Tsai (2000). He assumes that weisheme shouldtake an abstract movement to the Spec of CP to construct an interrogative. "It would violate
the relativized minimality, if this abstract movement takes place in the scope of auxiliary,
frequency adverbs, temporal adverbials, modal adverbs and negations" (2000: 55). These
blocking effects on LF movement can be schematized as following:
(28)
3.2

*[CP weishemei.....[EA/ zhi/Aux/ Freq/ Temp/ Modal/ Neg.....ti..]] LF
Interaction between EAs and wh-nominals in Mandarin

Although great distinctions had discussed between wh-adverbs and wh-nominals, similar
results would be discovered when EAs co-occur with wh-nominals, such as sheme ‘what’ andshei ‘who’ in Mandarin. With indefinite reading on wh-nominals, sentences could beinterpreted as either interrogatives or declaratives. EAs, however, would fail both readings.
3.2.1 The indefinite interpretation of wh-nominals
Wh-nominals shei ‘who’ and sheme ‘what’ in Mandarin can be interpreted with either
interrogative or non-interrogative reading (Huang 1982; Li 1992; Aoun & Li 1993). Tsai

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Evaluative Adverbs in Mandarin Wh-questions (X.-X. R. Yu)(1999ab) assumes that there should be a null operator base-generated in the Spec of CP. If it
contains a [+Q] feature, a wh-question would be constructed through the application of
unselective binding for languages like Mandarin and Japanese. On the other hand, a
topic-command or a relative construction would be constructed due to the [-Q] null operator.
A wh-nominal, in general, tends to require a quantificational force for not only clarifying its
scope, but also labeling out its interpretation.
Specifically, Li (1992) investigates the distribution of indefinite wh-nominal andconcludes that the in-situ wh-nominal must be linked by the preceding operator with [+Q]feature for interpreting the interrogative reading, while the indefinite reading is comprehended
with the linking to a [-Q] operator. Based on a minimality requirement, Li (1992) presumes abinder-variable relation between wh-nominals and the c-commanding operators. That is, “thewh-nominals must be linked to the closest licenser” (Aoun & Li 1993: 214). Under Huang’sand Li's assumptions, the scope of wh-nominals depends on the location of their preceding orbinding operator, as well as its alternation of interrogative or an indefinite interpretation. In Li(1992) and Aoun & Li (1993), indefinite wh-nominals are limited to occur with negation in(29) and other question markers in (30), or in conditionals in (31) and in embedded clause ofnon-factive verbs in (32):(29)

Ta bu wei sheme ren zuo shi.
he not for what
man do thing‘He does not work for anyone.’(30)

Ta xihuan
he like(Aoun & Li 1993:213)

sheme ma?
what
Q-marker‘Does he like something(anything)?’(31)

Yaoshi ta xiangqi
If
he recall(Li 1992:128)

sheme, qing mashangtongzhiwhat
please immediately informwo.
I‘If he recalled something, please inform me immediately.’(32)

Wo {yiwei/ renwei/ cai/ xiwang } nixihuanI
think think guess hope
you like‘I think/ guess/ hope that you like something.’

sheme (dongxi).
what
thing
(Li 1992:129)

Similar effects could also be discovered when wh-nominals interact with certain adverbs,
which make linguistic context become tentative or uncertain:(33)

Ta {dagai/
keneng/ haoxiang/ sihu/ yexu} xihuan sheme.
he probably probably seem
seem perhaps likewhat
‘He probably/ probably/ seems to / seems to/ may like something.’ (Li 1992:131)- 197 -

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1

Indefinite wh-nominals, in Li’s observations, tend to co-occur with those expressions that
denoting uncertainty or tentativeness. In the uncertain context, the truth-value is not fixed, andsemantically the truth of the proposition is not asserted. According to Li (1992), thisbinder-variable relation between the preceding operator and the c-commanded wh-nominals
could be illustrated as following:(34)[+/- QOP.....wh-nominal]

If the licensing operator is an overt Q-marker, such as Wh-particle ma in (30), a +QOP
(Question Operator) appears, licenses the wh-nominal with indefinite reading, and construct
an A-not-A question. On the other hand, a –QOP represents those elements that also license
the indefinite wh-nominal, but in a declarative sentence. Adopting Li’s accounting for the
relation between those operators and indefinite wh-nominals, I extend these two structures tofigure out the interaction between EAs and the indefinite wh-nominal.
3.2.2

EAs and wh-nominals

EAs in Mandarin, however, could hardly create an environment for the indefinite
reading:(35) a.

Shei ba hua
zhai-le?
who BA flower take-off‘Who took off the flower?’b.

KanaliApparently

shei ba hua
zhai-le.
who BA flower take-off‘Apparently, someone took off the flower.’c. */?? Pianpian
contrarily(36) a.

shei
ba huazhai-le ?/.
who BA flower take-off

Ta ai-shang-le shei?
he loved
who‘Whom did he love?

b.

Kenengprobablyta ai-shang-le shei.
he loved
who‘Maybe he fell in love with someone.’c. */?? Xingkui
ta ai-shang-le shei ?/.
fortunately he loved
what- 198 -

Evaluative Adverbs in Mandarin Wh-questions (X.-X. R. Yu)(37) a.

Sheme-ren mingtian hui
what-person tomorrow will

lai?
come

‘Who will come tomorrow?’b.

Yexu
sheme-renperhaps what-person

mingtian hui
tomorrow will

lai.
come

‘Perhaps someone will come tomorrow.’c. */?? Xinghao
luckily(38) a.

Xiaoli
Xiaolisheme-renmingtian hui
what-person tomorrow willzuotianyesterday

mai-lebuy-LElai ?/.
comesheme?
what‘What did Xiaoli bought yesterday?’
b.

Dagai
Xiaoli zuotian
Probably Xiaoli yesterday

mai-lebuy-LE

sheme.
what‘Probably, Xiaoli bought something yesterday.’c. */?? Haozai
luckily

Xiaoli zuotian mai-le sheme ?/.
Xiaoli yesterday buy-LE what

Shei ‘who’ in (35a) and (36a) and sheme ‘what’ in (37a) and (38a) are regarded asinterrogatives, while they are interpreted with indefinite readings in (35b), (36b), (37b) and(38b). Once EAs occur, however, all the sentences failed without any reading on wh-nominals.
Obviously, EAs could neither grammatically co-occur with wh-nominals in interrogatives, norproperly create an environment for the indefinite reading of wh-nominals. For these
phenomena, we can have some plausible explanations from syntactic and semantic
perspectives.
Syntactically, wh-nominals in Mandarin require a nearest licenser to clarify the scope of
the wh-nominals. According to RM, once the link is broken, there must be an element inserted
carrying “the same feature”. EAs that interrupt into the link between the licenser andwh-nominals would be considered as a qualified element with quantificational feature. And
the LF representation would be displayed as following:(39)* [+/- QOP....... EA.......wh-nominal...]Semantically, as mentioned above, Li (1992) concludes that the indefinite wh-nominals
occur in the linguistic contexts where the true value of the proposition is “negated, non-fixed,
asserted with uncertainty or inferred tentatively” (Li 1992:146). This uncertainty, in Li’s
assumption, may results from the non-referential inheritance in wh-phrases. Furthermore, Lin(2004) marks this indefinite wh-phrases as existential polarity wh-phrase (EPW) (Ladusaw- 199 -

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1

1980, Linebarger 1981, Huang 1982, Li 1992, Cheng 1994, Lin 1996, 1998), and he also
claims that they are one kind of polarity idem which may not exist in affirmative context. As
mentioned in section two, EAs presuppose the truth of the following proposition, and make it
becomes a happened fact. These are affirmative sentences. In other words, EAs create
environments of certainty. Quite the contrary, the indefinite reading of the wh-nominal, i.e.,
EPW, would never survive in the circumstance under EAs. From semantic perspectives, Lin’s
assumptions on EPW precisely predict the interactions between EAs and wh-nominals in
Mandarin.
4.

Asymmetry on EAs

In previous discussions, EAs are concluded as interveners blocking either the LF
movement of wh-adverb, or the licensing of wh-nominals. Nevertheless, this assumption
should be restricted into certain members of EAs in Mandarin. For example,(40)

Lingrenyiwaide,astonishingly

weisheme Daiyu jiang -le na
why
Daiyu speak-LE that

ju
CL

hua
ne?
Sentence Particle‘It is astonishing that, why did Daiyu mentioned that sentence?’(41)

Shifen jiaoxingde, Zhangsan shi zenmeyangvery
accidentally Zhangsan SHI how
tao -guo
dirende zhuisha?
escape-GUO enemy DE chase-kill‘How did Zhang accidentally escaped from enemy’s chase?’(42)

Lingrenbukesiyide, Zhangsan zuotian
strangely
Zhangsan yesterday
jintian jiu
jin -le jianlao?
today then enter-LE jailjiang-le sheme,say -LE what

‘It is strange that, what did Zhangsan say yesterday, which causes him to be sent
into the jail today?’(43)

Feichang xingyunde, shei
very
luckily
whozhong-le letou?
win -LE lotto‘It is lucky that, who won the lotto?’
For those EAs in these sentences, they block neither the LF movement of wh-adverbs, nor the
licensing of wh-nominals, but the sentences are all acceptable. These observations lead us to
the second issue:- 200 -

Evaluative Adverbs in Mandarin Wh-questions (X.-X. R. Yu)(7)Sub-classification of EAs in Mandarini.
Are they all derived from corresponding adjectives? Does any difference occur
among them?
ii. How do the differences affect their interactions with other elements?

4.1

Two types of EAs

EAs in (40)-(43) are morphologically different from those we have discussed in theprevious sections. Being capable of delivering speaker’s attitude in Mandarin, EAs can beseparated in terms of morphological suffix –de:
(44)(a) with identical suffix(b) without identical suffix

xingyunde‘luckily’buxingde‘unfortunately’churenyilaode‘unexpectedly’
lingrenyiwaide‘unexpectedly’momingqimiaode ‘inexplicable’

xingkui
xinghaofanzheng
haozaijuran
jingrankexihaihaopianpian……

‘fortunately’‘fortunately’‘at least’‘luckily’‘unexpectedly’‘unexpectedly’‘it’s pity that…’‘not-bad’‘contrarily’

Focusing on the morphological affixes, Tang (2000) insists that EAs, as one type ofmodal adverbs, should be defined as adverbs that are not converted from adjectives. In
Mandarin, therefore, adverbs in (44) are classified as EAs following Ernst’s semanticinterpretation, while only adverbs in (44b) are included as EAs, based on Tang’smorphological definition.
In English, EAs are morphologically derived from the corresponding adjectives with thederivational affix –ly, such as fortunately from fortunate, and unfortunately from unfortunate.
Parallel to those in English, EAs in Mandarin in (44a) can be regarded as the result of
deriving from adjectives with suffix –de, such as xingyunde ‘luckily’ from xingyunde ‘lucky’.
6
The members in this sub-type, in addition, are not limited in number, since adjectives in
Mandarin are known as an open class. On the other hand, members of the sub-type in (44b),
do not have any affix in common, because they are not derived from adjectives, as well aslacking of the corresponding adjectives. The amount of number in this sub-type, of course, islimited. Comparing with adjectives in Mandarin, the suffix –de could be also regarded as akind of modifier markers. In this case, EAs in (44b) that lack of this modifier marker could
not be considered as modifiers. For distinguishing these two types in Mandarin, EAs in (44b)are labeled in this paper as Adv-EAs, while those derived from adjectives as Adj-EAs. The
6

With the same phonological form –DE, the affix of adjective are distinctive from that of adverb in
written form. For example, –的 is the affix for adjectives, while -地 is the affix for adverbs.

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Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1

morphological distinctions between Adj-EAs and Adv-EAs are listed as following:(45)
English
EAs
positive form

fortunately
normally

Mandarin
Adj-EAs

Adv-EAs

xingyunde ‘luckily’zhengchangde ‘normally’negative form unfortunately

buxingyunde ‘unluckily’
feizhengchangde ‘abnormally’correspondent fortunate/
unfortunate
adjectives

xingyunde ‘lucky’buxingyunde, ‘unlucky’zhengchangde ‘normal’
feizhengchangde ‘abnormal’abnormallynormal/abnormal

xinghao ‘fortunately’
xingkui ‘fortunately’
juran‘unexpectedly’*buxinghao, *feixinghao,*buxingkui, *feixingkui,*bujuran*feijuran

The asymmetry between Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs could be discovered not only in themorphological formation, but also in the syntactic distribution.
4.2

Relative positions for Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs

According to Zhang's (2000ab) observations on adverbs in Mandarin, higher adverbs,
such as EAs or epistemic adverbs, occur in higher layers, preceding the non-sentential
adverbs. He also claims that freely interchangeability takes place only when two adverbs
belong to the same layers. But it is not the case for Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs:(46) a.

Haihao, xingyunde, Zhangsan
not-bad luckily
Zhangsantaochu bangfei
deescape kidnapper DE

qiujin.
prison‘Fortunately, Zhangsan luckily escaped from captivity.’b. * Xingyunde,(47) a.

? Pianpian,
contrarily

haihao,Zhangsantaochubuxingde, Xiaoli bei
unluckily Xiaoli BEI

bangfei

pian-lecheat-LEdeqiujin.

yibaiwan.
one-million-dollar‘Contrarily, it is unlucky for Xiaoli to been cheated for one million.
b. *Buxingde,

pianpian,

Xiaolibei

pian-leyibaiwan.

However, the interchangeability is allowed between two Adj-EAs:(48) a.

b.

Lingrenyiwaide,
unexpectedly

Xiaoli hen xingyunde tao-guoyijie.
Xiaoli very luckily
escape-GUO one calamity

Hen xingyunde, Xiaoli lingrenyiwaide tao-guo
yijie.
very luckily
Xiaoli unexpectedly
escape-GUO one calamity'Unexpectedly, Xiaoli luckily escape from this calamity.'- 202 -

Evaluative Adverbs in Mandarin Wh-questions (X.-X. R. Yu)

As the empirical evidence arguing for the asymmetry, Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs areallowed to be able to occur simultaneously, only if Adv-EAs precede Adj-EAs. Adopting
Rizzi’s split CP structure mentioned in (14), two types of EAs would be clearly distinguishedin distributions:
(49)
4.3

ForceP > Top* > Int > FocP >Adv-EA > Adj-EA > TopP* > FinP > IP
Syntactic derivations of Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs

Following Cinque’s (1999) assumptions on adverbs cross-linguistically, as well as
Rizzi's (2004) explanations on the hierarchical ordering among adverbs in Italian, two types
of EAs are proposed to derived through two steps: Merge and Move.
First step—base generated in Spec
According to Cinque's assumption, EAs "are generated in the specifier position of anevaluative mood head" (Cinque 1999:85). And in the universal hierarchy of functional heads,
this evaluative mood head projects to a maximal projection, MoodEvaluP, located above TP(IP). EAs are assumed to merge in the specifier position of the evaluative mood head. Basedon the ordering mentioned in (49), MoodEvaluP should occur higher than lower Top* and
FinP:
(50)

MoodEvaluP
EA

MoodEvalu’

MoodEvalu0

TopP*
FinP

Launching from the Spec of MoodEvaluP, Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs would then be assumed
to take a movement, respectively to different positions, due to the features inherited in these
two types of EAs.
Second step—another projection is required
Parallel to similar blocking effect caused by negation and some quantificational adverbs
in French (Obenauer 1983, Rizzi 2004:8), Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs leaving effects on
wh-phrases and some non-sentential adverbs, respectively, are suggested to move to anotherposition, named Modifier, which is syntactically located higher than MoodEvaluP in Rizzi’s
split CP structure. Adopting Rizzi’s assumptions that adverbs move to the Spec position ofMod, Adj-EAs are postulated to move to the Spec of ModP, motivated by the modifierfeature.
As to the situations in Adv-EAs, it is plausible to treat Adv-EAs as A’ specifiers withquantificational feature, since they indeed interact with wh-phrases. Motivated by- 203 -

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1

quantificational feature, Adv-EAs are then postulated to move to another position, named
QuantP, where Adv-EAs become "visible" for wh-phrases. Since Adv-EAs are observed toprecede Adj-EAs, the landing site of Adv-EAs should be higher than that of Adj-EAs. The
derivations of Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs would be illustrated as follows:
(51)

FocP
QuantP
Quant'
Quant0

ModP
Mod'
Mod0

MoodEvaluP

Move (Adj-EAs)

MoodEvalu'

Move (Adv-EAs)

MoodEvalu0
Merge (Adv-EAs & Adj-EAs)

TopP*
FinP
IP

First of all, both Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs are assumed to be base-generated in Spec of
MoodEvaluP. Then EAs move differently, motivated by the distinct features. Adj-EAs move toSpec of ModP, due to modifier feature, while Adv-EAs take a different movement to the Specof QuantP, triggered by quantificational feature. With separated and precise positions, we canclearly discuss the blocking effects caused by these two types of EAs.
But this hypothesis encounters two further problems: if EAs do have quantificationalfeature, (i) how and where could they be licensed, and (ii) how to distinguish Adv-EAs from
Adj-EAs?
Movement of Adv-EAs seems to be a proper solution for these problems. For the firstproblem, EAs that can interact with wh-phrases are claimed to move to another functional
head, where the intervention on the LF movement of wh-adverbs takes place, as well as
blocking the licensing of wh-nominals. According to Rizzi’s split CP structure in (52), theposition of QuantP should be located between Wh operator, Int, and the wh-phrases, for thesake of constructing intervention effect and blocking.

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Evaluative Adverbs in Mandarin Wh-questions (X.-X. R. Yu)(52) Force Top*

Int

Top*

Focus Mod*

Top*

Fin

IP
(Rizzi 2004:18)

As long as quantificational feature of the moved adverbs is licensed in the Spec positionof QuantP, the second issue would then be solved immediately. With the assumption of
movement, EAs are clearly separated into two groups: EAs with quantificational features andthose with modifier features. At the same time, this division can also point out the difference
between Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs.
4.4

Blocking effect caused by Adv-EAs and Adj-EAs

As mentioned above, Adj-EAs block other adverbs, which cause the failure of thesentence. Take a look at the sentenced mentioned in (19):(19) a.

b.

Henbuxingde, tamen
unfortunately theykeneng dui ni
probably to you

you pianjian.
have prejudice'It is unfortunate that they obviously have prejudice in you.'*Keneng, henbuxingde
tamen dui ni
youpianjian.
probably unfortunately theytoyou have prejudice

Adj-EA, henbuxingde 'unfortunately', and keneng 'probably' in (19) are classified into thesame subclass with the same modifier feature, which allows them to interact with each other.
And the ungrammaticality caused by the forward movement of keneng ‘probably’ is predicted
through RM:(53)

X[+modifier]Z[+modifier]Y[+modifier]*Spec Mod

Adj-EA

adverbAn Adj-EA with modifier feature stands as an interrupter, blocking the movement of the
c-commanded adverbs. And these elements could be regarded as "of the same structural type",
since they carry the same feature.
Without modifier feature, Adv-EAs would not block the movement of adverbs,- 205 -

Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 1, Vol. 1

theoretically. However, Adv-EAs occur always preceding Adj-EAs in (46) and (47), as wellas manner adverb in (54):(46) a.

Haihao, xingyunde, Zhangsan taochu bangfei
not-bad luckily
Zhangsan escape kidnapperdeDEqiujin.
prisondeqiujin.

‘Fortunately, Zhangsan luckily escaped from captivity.’b. * Xingyunde,(54) a.

haihao,ZhangsantaochubangfeiZhangsan xingkui
zixidehedui-goushangpin deZhangsan fortunately carefully check-GUO goodsDEburanta jiu dei
peichangsunshi le.
otherwise he then must compensate damage

shulang,amount'It is fortunate that Zhangsan has carefully checked up the amount of goods.
Otherwise he must compensate the lost.'
b. * Zhangsan
Zhangsanburanotherwise

zixidexingkui
hedui-goushangpin de shulang,
carefully fortunately check-GUO goods
DE amountta jiudeipeichangsunshi le.
he then mustcompensate damage

These wrong orderings result from the rigorous hierarchical ordering among adverbs.
According to the tree structure in (51), the landing site of Adv-EAs is presumed to be higher
than that of Adj-EAs and manner adverbs.
As to the intervention effect caused by Adv-EAs, the movement of Adv-EAs under RM
can also properly accounts for the phenomena mentioned at the beginning. The relevant
examples are listed again as follows ((55) =(36), (56) =(26)):(55) a.

Ta ai-shang-le shei?
he loved
who‘Whom did he love?

b.

Kenengprobablyta ai-shang-le shei.
he loved
who‘Maybe he fell in love with someone.’c. */?? Xingkui
ta ai-shang-le shei,
fortunately he loved
what(56) a.

Xiaozhang
Xiaozhangweisheme nengwhycancanjia wuhui ?
join
party

'Why can Xiaozhang join the party?'- 206 -

Evaluative Adverbs in Mandarin Wh-questions (X.-X. R. Yu)

b. * Xinghao Xiaozhang weisheme nengfortunately Xiaozhang why
cancanjia wuhui ?
join
party

c. * Xiaozhang
Xiaozhangcanjia wuhui ?
join
party

xinghao
weisheme nengfortunately why
canOnce Adv-EAs are proposed to inhered a quantificational feature, they are predicted tointeract with wh-adverbs—weisheme 'why' and wh-nominal—sheme 'what' and shei 'who'.
Therefore, the intervention effect between Adv-EAs and wh-phrases can also be schematized
as follows:
(57)

X
Z
[+QuantiF] [+QuantiF]
a.
b.

a.
b.

+/- QOP+QOPY[+QuantiF]**

Adv-EA
Adv-EA

wh-nominal
wh-adverb

The sentence in (55c) and (56c) are ungrammatical, because wh-nominal shei 'who' can
not be successfully licensed by the initial operator as in (57a), and wh-adverb weisheme 'why',
can not take a LF movement as in (57b).
In short, we can summarize this section with following table:(58)
EAs
inherent featurebase- generated in
Landing site
interact within English

in Mandarin
Adj-EAs
Adv-EAs
modifier feature
quantificational featureSpec of MoodEvaluPSpec of ModP
Spec of QuantPother adverbs
wh-phrases

5.

Conclusion
Through the observations on the interactions with wh-phrases, EAs in Mandarin can bedivided into two groups. Adv-EAs inherited quantificational feature, cause intervention
effects on c-commanded wh-adverb, while Adj-EAs carrying modifier feature are allowed toprecede other adverbs.

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